Hare Krishna Yoga, Karma, Reincarnation

About

Monday, 28 January 2013

.............now did you point to your head, your arm or leg or did you point to your heart? When we talk about the 'self' are we talking about our body, our brain or something within? The majority of you would have pointed to the heart. Now doesn't that tell you something? It is not surprising that the heart is the resting place for the soul and it is the soul that pervades the whole body with life essence.

Compare a living being with a dead body, what is the difference? We say the person has 'gone' yet the body remains, so it must be something within that has gone. It is the soul within that is our real identity and gives the life symptoms to the body.After giving up one type of body, the soul enters another type of body, similar to taking off and putting on new clothes.

We are not the body but the soul within the body.

This is confirmed in the Bhagavad Gita by the supreme personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna himself.

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change. (BG 2.13)

For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. (BG 2.20)

As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. (BG 2.22)

Monday, 21 January 2013

Today is apparently Blue Monday, dubbed the most Depressing day of the year. With factors such as fewer sunlight hours, bad weather, debt, the long wait for pay day after Christmas coupled with a general lack of motivation it may be difficult to find things to look forward to. Those new years resolutions have probably been broken already and the prospect for long lasting happiness would be much welcomed.

The mind always seeks for the the thing that will give it the most pleasure. Especially when we have something boring or tedious like, work, study or daily chores to do. It will find a hundred other things that it would rather be doing. Material happiness is a blend of all kinds of sense gratification but this is no different to animals, they also eat, sleep, mate, defend and can gratify their senses just as we can. Surely human life is meant for much more!

Are you really Happy?

Happiness can often be mistaken for relief from distress. For example, we've all been there. We really need to pass water and are absolutely bursting and then finally after a long wait you go to the loo! Aaaahhhhh now don't you feel happy? But surely THAT can't be real happiness. It can be described as a temporary relief from distress. The same applies for the euphoric sensation that drinking alcohol brings, numbing the senses and feeling happy by temporarily forgetting the pangs of material existence when in actual fact on a material level we are illusioned to accept that this relief from distress is happiness.

What sets us apart from animals and where can we find happiness that gives a lasting sense of inner contentment that isn't just a temporary relief? How can we reach a state that gives us a greater, more supreme version of happiness?

This can only be done by altering our level of consciousness and changing our perception and taste for happiness. What we perceive as happiness is determined through our senses and our level of consciousness. If we raise the standard of what we consider to be happiness and not settle for a mundane watered down version of it, then true happiness may be achieved. By purifying the consciousness with spiritual activity one can be alleviated from this material concept of happiness. Material happiness by nature is insatiable and short lived, where as spiritual happiness is pure and eternal.

Thursday, 3 January 2013

The one thing most of us are searching for in life, is quite simply to be happy. How can we make this new year a truly happy one? What is happiness? How can we get it and how can we keep it?

Is happiness that new pair of shoes you were so so excited to buy? However, once they're worn and scuffed they don't seem so special any more. Or does food make you happy, a tasty pizza with all your favourite toppings on? Could you eat the same pizza everyday and still be happy even when you are stuffed and bloated? Or is happiness that pint you were craving after a long hard week back at work? But the happiness is all gone by the morning when you're suffering with a migraine and full of regret.

Sometimes when we get the thing we wanted the most, it still doesn't bring us that feeling of inner happiness or true bliss that we expected, and if it does it doesn't seem to last that long?The problem is, all these things are material and only deliver happiness temporarily. That is the nature of the material world. Not only do these things only delivery happiness for a short amount of time, we're under the forces of material nature which make us think, "Well that wasn't what I really wanted in the first place" and we start looking for happiness somewhere else in the form of a matching handbag, a different type of take away food or a glass of wine instead. Its a cycle of bursts of temporary happiness followed by disenchantment and wanting more or something else. The material world is temporary, illusory and sadly makes us think we're happy in our ignorance.

Lets think about transcending the material platform in search for Spiritual happiness, which is deep, meaningful, satisfying and eternal.

Sound good? Stay tuned for more posts to get a further insight into spiritual life, hints and tips which you can apply to everyday life and attain inner fulfilment and Happiness! Comment, subscribe and share!